Testimony Puts Doubt On Dugan

April 25, 1990|By Nancy Ryan, Chicago Tribune.

BLOOMINGTON — The testimony Tuesday of the pathologist who performed the autopsy on 10- year-old Jeanine Nicarico contradicted much of the version of the girl`s 1983 killing told by twice-convicted killer Brian Dugan.

Dr. Frank Cleveland, coroner of Hamilton County, Ohio, told a McLean County jury that the Naperville girl was struck in the head at least five times with a rounded weapon and with the same force as that experienced in head-on car collisions.

``It`s my opinion that there would have been significant amounts of blood found at the scene`` near the Illinois Prairie Path where the girl`s body was found, Cleveland said. Only a few drops of blood were found near the child`s body.

Cleveland`s testimony in Alexandro Hernandez`s retrial for the Feb. 25, 1983, slaying plays a key role in the prosecution`s argument that Dugan could not have killed the girl alone.

Dugan, who is serving natural life sentences for two unrelated slayings, told his attorneys in 1985 that he drove the child to the Illinois Prairie Path, where he raped her and struck the girl twice on the head with a tire iron. After she fell and hit her head against the car`s bumper, Dugan carried her from the car and struck her again with a tree limb, his attorneys said.

Dugan made the statements after Hernandez and Rolando Cruz, both 26 and of Aurora, were convicted in 1985 of the slaying. The Illinois Supreme Court ordered new trials after ruling they should have been tried separately.

Dugan, who had confessed to the other slayings, has since refused to repeat his statements in the Nicarico slaying in court unless he is granted immunity from the death penalty.

His version was supported by attorneys for Cruz in his January retrial in Rockford. They called to the stand a pathologist who testified that it was possible that as a result of the blows the girl could have gone into shock. That condition could lessen the flow of blood, according to testimony.

During cross-examination by Michael Metnick, Hernandez`s attorney, Cleveland said he did not measure the amount of blood remaining in the child`s body. He also said it was possible some blood was absorbed by the girl`s hair and by a towel wrapped around her eyes.